Bullying and Workplace Violence

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines workplace violence as any physical assault, threatening behavior or verbal abuse occurring in the workplace (NIOSH, 1996). ANA recognizes that workplace violence is a problem in the health care industry and works hard to provide resources to protect nurses.

Official Position on Workplace Violence

The American Nurses Association (ANA) upholds that all nursing personnel have the right to work in healthy work environments free of abusive behavior such as bullying, hostility, lateral abuse and violence, sexual harassment, intimidation, abuse of authority and position and reprisal for speaking out against abuses.

Lateral violence refers to acts between colleagues and bullying is often described as acts perpetrated by one in a higher level of authority. This behavior may involve covert or overt acts of verbal and non-verbal aggression. These types of behavior have been reported to result in enough psychological distress to nurses to cause them to leave the profession (Dellasega, 2009).

Advocacy

Although, there is no federal standard that requires workplace violence protections, effective January 1, 2009 The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization created a new standard in the “Leadership” chapter (LD.03.01.01) that addresses disruptive and inappropriate behaviors. Additionally, there are several states that have enacted legislation or regulations aimed at preventing workplace violence.

2011 ANA Health and Safety Survey
A survey of more than 4,600 nurses assessing nurses concerns and experiences pertaining to health and safety in the workplace. Physical and verbal abuse at work were addressed in the survey questions.